


This Christmas Life

by Myarna



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas AU, Everybody Lives, High School AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-06 16:01:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1108777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myarna/pseuds/Myarna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A high school AU in which Gabriel is a little shit.<br/>Castiel Novak is forced to do work as Santa's Elf in a local mall, the same mall where Dean Winchester happens to work. Despite the two never really making much contact, they end up hitting it off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so the formatting on AO3 makes it look really dialogue-heavy, but it looks way better on my Word I swear. How frustrating for me. Having long spurts of speech annoys me okay.  
> Anyway, enjoy the first chapter!

Castiel absolutely despised his job. He hated the holiday season enough as it was, but this year, Gabriel dragged him along to the mall whenever he got a spare moment and forced him to become one of Santa’s goddamn elves. The music that played on repeat constantly pounded inside his head, the little children that constantly pushed and shoved left bruises on his knees, and the outfit was just ridiculous.  
Gabriel, for whatever sadistic reasons, took great pleasure in painting rosy red circles on Castiel’s cheeks and dressing him up in a stifling felt costume every single weekend of the season. It got worse when school went on Christmas break, because then he had to go every day.  
His co-workers were nice enough though, and just about made the days bearable. There was an elderly woman called Marge, Gabriel, and a far-too peppy twenty-four year old ginger guy whose name he didn’t know.  
It just so happened that one humdrum Saturday, for whatever reason, Castiel suddenly looked up to the coffee shop that sat opposite where Santa’s giant throne was positioned. The bell that was attached to his cheap hat jingled as his head turned and he scowled at it mentally. The sight that greeted him at said coffee shop caused more than a scowl.  
There, behind the counter, stood a boy that was vaguely familiar yet totally unplaceable. Castiel quickly looked away, not wanting this familiar stranger to see him for some reason. He knew the guy, but whether it was all the screaming, or just the fatigue, he couldn’t place him. Cas flicked his hair out of his eyes and turned to see a child tugging at his leg.  
     “Hey there, little boy!” Castiel put on a forced smile and a stupid voice to appease the child.  
     “Wanna see Santa!” The kid screeched, the ear ringing sound making Castiel flinch briefly before recovering quickly.  
     “Santa’s seeing to another good little boy right now, but he’ll be ready real soon.” Castiel couldn’t help but think his voice sounded patronizing.  
     “WANNA SEE SANTA!” The child screamed louder than Castiel thought possible, and his flinch was more than brief.  
 _I hate this job, I hate my brother, I hate money, I hate life!_  
     “Hey, sweetie. How are you doing?” Marge appeared out of nowhere and saved Castiel’s brain from melting.  
Marge took the despicable child away from him, much to his relief. He cast a grateful glance at her back, not that she saw it.  
He allowed himself to sink back into a daydream once more. He thought about why he was stood in the centre of the mall, dressed entirely in green, red and bells.

 _“Cassie!” Gabriel called, the chirpy tone already irritated Castiel even before he heard what his older brother had to say._  
     “What?” Castiel looked up from his sketchpad in a detached sort of way.  
     “You know how you totally adore Christmas and everything to do with it?”  
     “Yes, Gabriel.” Castiel chorused and turned back to his drawing. In truth, he hated Christmas and especially everything to do with it.  
     “Well, a friend of mine…”  
Castiel stopped paying attention. Gabriel’s voice became nothing more than a pleasant buzzing in the background of his mind. When he noticed the buzzing had stopped, he looked up to realize Gabriel was expecting a reply.  
     “Okay, fine.” Castiel answered, hoping that was the correct reply.  
     “Awesome! Thanks, little bro! We start Saturday.”  
     “Wait, what?” Starting what?Oh, son of a bitch is Gabriel really going to use my inattentiveness against me again?  
 _“Saturday! It’s gonna be great, thanks Cassie!” Gabriel happily skipped out of Castiel’s bedroom._  
Castiel paused for a moment, racking his brain to find what Gabriel had just got him to agree to. After his moment of mind-searching that found nothing, Castiel flung his sketchpad and pencil onto a random space in his bed and raced out of his room, feet slipping on the floor.  
     “Gabriel, what the hell did I just agree to?” Castiel yelled as he ran, knocking over glasses and pictures in the process.  
     “No backsies!” Gabriel shouted back, giggling maniacally as he ran away from his younger brother.

     “No backsies my ass.” Castiel muttered, forgetting entirely where he was.  
He suddenly realized how dumb he must have looked. The teenage guy dressed in a freaking elf outfit with circles of lipstick on his cheeks muttering to himself in a pissed off voice and looking at nothing in particular.  
Then, the very voice that he did not want to hear at that particular moment shouted out.  
     “Hey, Clarence!”  
 _Jesus Christ Meg if you take a picture I swear to god I will kill you with my bare hands._    
     "Hello, Meg."  
     "You're looking simply _dashing_." Meg raised an eyebrow as she looked him up and down, and Castiel could almost hear the silent ‘through the snow’ she added.  
Castiel found himself wishing that he'd been able to wear jeans rather than green tights.  
     "Go to hell." Castiel smiled, putting on the mock happy voice he’d been instructed to use in order to appease children.  
     "Don't you mean ho, ho homicide?" Meg giggled at her own bad pun, acting far too happy for, well…Meg.  
     "No, I don't." It seemed they’d switched roles. Castiel was the unapproachable grouch, and Meg was the optimistic annoyance.  
     "Aw, lighten up, Clarence! It's Christmas!"  
     "Meg, I get to leave in ten minutes, please don't make this any more painful than it has to be." Castiel growled, pointedly glaring at his best friend.  
     "Can't I see Santa?" Meg teased, swinging her shoulders as she did.  
     "No, you can't."  
     "But then how will he know what I want for Christmas?" Meg whined and hit Castiel with the zipper of her leather jacket.  
     "He doesn't visit naughty boys and girls." Castiel glared at her, which only caused her to burst into laughter.  
     "Novak, I never thought I'd see the day where you're angry and in character while wearing an elf costume." She gasped in between laughs.  
Castiel ignored her and went on pretending to be happy to children.

By the time his watch bleeped to let him know his shift was over, Meg was nowhere to be seen. He decided he was too pissed with Gabriel to wait for him, so he just picked up his bag and hauled ass for the coffee shop across the mall, damn bells jingling as he ran. Once inside, he pulled off the hat immediately. While struggling to shove it in his bag, he walked over to the counter.  
     "Do you have a bathroom here?" He asked, not looking up at the assistant.  
     "Well yeah, it's for customers only though. But I'm sure I can make an exception for one of Santa's elves." The assistant informed him, the smile audible.  
Castiel recognized that voice. He looked up and his blood ran cold. Dean Winchester stood before him, wearing a goofy grin. Dean Winchester, that one guy who played dumb to his wide circle of friends, but whom Castiel suspected to be actually very smart, despite appearances.  
     "No, it's okay, I'll buy something." A very real blush appeared under the lipstick circles on his face.  
There he was, stood in front of Dean freaking Winchester, wearing an elf costume. What had his life come to? He was certain that everyone in school would know that's what he chose to do with his Saturdays by the next school day.  
     "Go on in, I'll get a cocoa for when you get back."  
     "T-thank you." Castiel cursed himself for letting his words get stuck in his throat.  
Not only was he internally dying of embarrassment, but he hadn't expected the kindness and helpfulness of Dean. Dean gestured to a set of two wooden doors with the universal bathroom signs pinned on them. Castiel gratefully escaped into the privacy of the men's room, hauling his bag behind him.  
The second he got into the cubicle, he began stripping off the awful outfit and replacing it with his normal clothes that he'd carried around in his leather satchel.

Meanwhile, just as Dean began to look away from the boy that had just disappeared inside the bathroom, his best friend looked up from the table she was sat at.  
     “The crush you have on that boy is so catastrophically obvious it’s almost painful.” Lisa told him seriously, her long arms revealed to the elbow as she leaned on the table.  
     “I don’t have a crush on Cas. I don’t even swing that way.” Dean defended himself, and would continue to until the last stand.  
     “Oh, come off it, Winchester. You may not swing that way for all guys, but you certainly do for him.”  
     “Bullshit.”  
     “You were staring at his ass.” Lisa pointed out, not changing her composure at all.  
     “The guy was wearing tights, can you blame me for being curious?” Dean brushed it off. After all, it was only natural to be curious.  
     “You always stare at his ass.”  
     “Come on, Lisa. I’m not into dudes, okay?” He was just glad his outburst went unnoticed by the patrons.  
     “I believe you,” Lisa told him truthfully.  
She could believe that Dean wasn’t into dudes. Believing that Dean wasn’t into Cas however, that was a totally different story.  
Lisa got a call at that moment from her father, who’d come to pick her up, so she sadly couldn’t stay to watch Dean ogle at the cute little nerdy kid as he walked out.  
Dean rolled his eyes at Lisa as she left. He didn’t have a crush on Cas. He’d grow up, marry a nice girl and have kids. That’s always what was going to happen. Hell, everyone expected him to marry Lisa, and he might just do, if he was lucky enough to be chosen by her. Cas didn’t matter. He was just some random kid from school, and Dean certainly did not have a crush on him.

Cas returned to the homely interior of the coffee shop and allowed himself to be surrounded in the gorgeous smells of coffee. He was a sucker for the smell, but the taste almost made him ill. He cast a glance over the tired faces of most of the people inside the shop, and was met with Dean’s puppy dog eyes looking up at him from a table next to the counter during his pan over.  
     “Where’d Santa’s elf go?”  
Castiel lifted the flap of his bag and pulled the corner of the hideous costume up a little.  
     “I killed him.” Castiel deadpanned, and Dean spluttered into laughter.  
     “I got your cocoa. Do you wanna sit?” After Dean had finished guffawing, he gestured vaguely to the seat opposite him, which had a single white cup on the table in front of it.  
     “That would be nice, thank you.” Castiel couldn’t help but feel a little nervous as he lowered himself into the chair opposite Dean freaking Winchester.  
     “So how d’you get roped into being Santa’s little helper?”  
     “My brother’s an asshole.” Castiel answered shortly, taking a sip of his cocoa from the cup.  
     “So it’s not for the money?” Dean sounded surprised. Castiel realized that not everyone knew the Novak financial situation.  
     “No, not at all. It was a favour for a friend of Gabriel’s, and I somehow got pulled in. I believe the term ‘no backsies’ was used more than once.” Castiel’s last remark pulled yet another laugh from Dean. Castiel wondered if Dean was nervous for some reason, but quickly pushed that thought aside.  
     “You’re funnier than I remember you to be.”  
     “What do you remember me to be?”  
     “The quiet guy that sat in the corner with a sketch pad.” Dean remembered all the times he’d seen Castiel totally alone, drawing.  
     “I still am that person at school. I always was, and I probably always will be. You rarely catch me being amusing, I’m just tired.”  
     “Oh, I’m not sure that’s true.” Dean was smiling softly, searching over every part of Castiel’s face with his impossibly green eyes.  
     “Oh?”  
     “I think you’re shy, but I think in the right company, you can be just as arrogant as me.”  
     “I don’t think you’re arrogant.” Castiel told him a little too quickly, swallowing down some more of the intoxicating cocoa to hide his embarrassment.  
     “Oh?” Dean mirrored Castiel’s own answer.  
     “Honestly? I think you’re smarter than you let on to be. I think that in the right company, you can be just as shy and unassuming as me.” Castiel hoped he hadn’t let on just how much he thought about Dean Winchester.  
     "I guess in the right company, we can all be something different."  
     "I agree. So, why are you working here?" That was all Castiel's mind could come up with to ask.  
     "Ellen, the woman who owns this place, she's like a mom to me. I'm just working towards a college fund." He held Castiel's gaze for a moment before breaking into a smile. "Okay I'm lying. I know I'm not gonna get into college, my grades suck."  
     "Of course you could. Dean, I've seen you in shop class, you could probably get in to MIT." Castiel wasn't lying. He probably could.  
     "Cassie, come on." A voice came from the doorway and interrupted Dean and Castiel's self-esteem boosting extravaganza.  
Castiel turned around to see his brother standing at the entrance to the coffee shop dressed up in the tacky elf costume that was accessorised with bright red circles on his checks. Cas couldn't hold back a laugh.  
     "Did I look that ridiculous?" He asked, turning back to Dean.  
     "Oh, you looked worse." Dean teased lightly, smiling.  
     "Castiel, come on." Gabriel snapped, shifting awkwardly in the tights.  
     "I am finishing my cocoa." Castiel glanced down into the nearly empty cup and pretended to drink from it, flashing a secret smile to Dean as he did. Dean met his eyes and smiled back, knowing the glint of evil younger sibling in his eyes.  
     "Castiel Novak, if I have to stand here in tights for any longer than necessary, I will shove these bells down your damn throat." Gabriel hissed, walking over to slam his hands down on Cas' table.  
     "I believe the expression is 'no backsies'." Cas shrugged and leaned back nonchalantly, which caused Dean to have to bite back a laugh.  
     "I'm not screwing about now."  
     "Why don't you just change?" Castiel looked down at his own jeans for emphasis.  
     "I didn't bring anything to change into." Gabriel hissed, giving both giggling teens a hard glare. Gabriel never glared at Castiel, so when he did, it was serious. That, and Cas couldn’t help but pissing him off further. He was a younger sibling, after all.  
     "If you wanna go now, I can give Cas a ride home." Dean offered, looking up at Gabriel casually.  
     "Oh, Dean I couldn't." Something in Castiel's stomach twisted at the very notion.  
     "Sure you could! I'll see you at home, thanks Dean!" Gabriel called as he rushed out, bells jingling as he went.  
     "Dean, I really couldn't. You're working." Castiel wrung his hands while he spoke.  
     "It's Jo's shift, don't worry about it." Dean looked over to the counter, where a blonde girl that Castiel knew from school was frantically working the machines to keep up with the custom.  
     "Are you sure? I don't mind getting the bus." Castiel's eyes flickered to the corners of the room, anywhere but Dean’s eyes.  
     "Don't be dumb. When you finish that, we can go for a walk and then I'll drop you home. How does that sound?" Dean leaned back in the chair while simultaneously untying the apron he wore around his waist.  
     "That sounds great." Cas could have used better adjectives, but they would have sounded creepy.

He and Dean had strolled around the mall for about half an hour, bursting into laughter every ten seconds at bored-looking mothers with their screaming children and many people in ridiculous costumes.  
     "We're barely out of November and look at it. It's not sane." Castiel muttered as they walked past yet another Santa.  
     "Says the elf." Dean laughed, which earned a nudge from Castiel.  
     "Oh my god, can we agree never to speak of that ever again?"  
     "Agreed." Dean grabbed Castiel's hand and shook it firmly.  
Dean's hand lingered for a moment, and Castiel had a fleeting thought that Dean might not let go. Castiel swallowed hard just as Dean got his wits back and dropped Cas' hand. Dean cleared his throat and returned his gaze forwards.  
     "So, uh, have you started the English assignment yet?” Dean asked, slightly embarrassed.  
     “The analytical essay on Lord Capulet from Romeo and Juliet or the creative writing assessment?” Castiel picked up on the air of awkwardness, but he had no idea how to change it.  
     “Aw crap, there’s more than one thing?” Dean had genuinely only been planning for the Romeo and Juliet thing.  
     “Sadly so.” Castiel smiled a little, wondering whether Dean was just putting it on or was actually totally confused.  
     “Damn it. The creative writing can’t be that hard, anyway.” Dean brushed it off. Surely, anyone could crap out a story.  
     “Shut up.” Castiel hit him on the arm. “Creative writing isn’t easy. It’s just like any other art. It takes time and practice and nobody really knows what you’re _supposed_ to do, that’s why it’s art.”  
Dean was watching him with a soft smile on his face and he only remembered it wasn’t the norm to stare when Castiel met his gaze, asking a silent ‘what?’ with the look.  
     “You get quite passionate sometimes.” Dean told him quietly, feeling like he’d phrased that badly.  
     “I will defend the difficulty of creative writing until the last man.” Castiel smiled and looked up at Dean, his inattentiveness almost causing him to walk straight into a trash can.  
     “I don’t doubt it.”


	2. It's a Wonderful Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title sums this up nicely, I think.

Dean’s car was totally badass and simply gorgeous at the same time. Dean proudly informed him that it was a 1967 Chevrolet Impala that belonged to his father. It was absolutely magnificent, and Castiel was going to get to ride in it.  
He almost felt like he was soiling the car simply by sitting in it. He ran his hand over the smooth leather of the seats numerous times before Dean even started the engine.  
Cas looked up after a few moments of silence to see Dean staring at him again. He felt himself blush and he unconsciously licked his lips. Dean wished he hadn’t noticed that quick movement of Castiel’s tongue, but he had, and for some reason, he couldn’t get it out of his damn mind.  
     “So, where to?” Dean shook his head, as if to rid himself of the thoughts of Castiel.  
     “To the moon.” Castiel deadpanned before succumbing to the giggles that he was suppressing. “That sounded less awful in my head.”  
     “Oh, I’ll take you to the moon any time.” Dean winked and then pulled off his trademark smirk.  
     “While I’d like to take you up on that, I’d much prefer to go home. Do you know where Valley Avenue is?”  
     “You live on _Valley Avenue_?” Dean almost choked on air.  
     “No, I was just wondering if you know where it is.” There was a pause where Dean tried to work out whether or not Cas was joking. “Yes, I live on Valley Avenue.”  
He understood Dean’s reaction. Valley Avenue was basically reserved for millionaires and ‘celebrities’. Celebrities being various local politicians and one writer who used to be famous, but had chosen to live alone and never make contact with anyone.  
The Novak family weren’t exactly millionaires, and they were definitely not celebrities, but they were what would be called ‘old money’.  
     “I thought only pretentious assholes lived on Valley Avenue.” Dean murmured quietly. “Not that you’re…” He corrected himself quickly, but didn’t finish the sentence.  
     “I know, and you’re right. Most of my neighbours, and my family, come to think of it, are total assholes.”  
     “Well, you’re not. Yeah, I know where it is.” Dean smiled a little as he put the car into drive and took a sharp right out of the mall’s parking lot.  
There was a moment of awkward silence where Castiel didn’t really know what to say.  
     “It’s funny, isn’t it? We’ve never held a conversation that’s lasted over two minutes before, but this afternoon has pretty much redeemed how awful the morning was.” Castiel eventually mused.  
     “The question is, though, _why_ have we never had a conversation that’s lasted more than two minutes?” Dean took his eyes off the road for a moment in order to glance at Cas.  
     “Oh, well that’s easy. We’re of different social standings.”  
     “So?”  
     “So, your friends are terrifying.” Cas laughed, not that he was joking. Dean’s friends scared the living daylights out of him, and it was no use denying it.  
     “My friends are terrifying? Explain.” Dean furrowed his eyebrows and tried to regulate the amount of time he spent looking at Cas instead of the road.  
     “Your friends are all six foot football playing jocks. Terrifying.” Castiel may have been exaggerating slightly, but it got his point across.  
     “Lisa isn’t a six foot football playing jock.” Dean smiled at the thought. No, Lisa despised sport and everyone who liked it, apart from Dean, of course.  
     “Lisa’s your girlfriend, she doesn’t count.” Castiel shrugged, and as soon as he said the words, he began to think that he might not have phrased them as tactfully as he could’ve.  
     “What?” Dean choked on air.  
     “I don’t mean she doesn’t count, I phrased that badly-” Castiel attempted to cover quickly.  
     “You think Lisa’s my girlfriend?” Having to look back at the road was really beginning to piss Dean off.  
     “Isn’t she?”  
     “No! Dude, she’s my best friend, and that’s what she’s been since we were in diapers.” Despite his reaction, Dean could see why Cas would think that. He and Lisa were rarely apart, and they ironically flirted a bit in the hallways.  
     “Wait, so who _are_ you dating?” Castiel was most definitely confused, a feeling which didn’t often affect him.  
     “Currently, nobody.”  
     “What do you mean _nobody_? You’re Dean Winchester, you have to be dating somebody.”  
     “I see you’ve heard of me.” Dean put on a Bond villain-esque voice, which pulled a weak laugh from Cas’ reluctant mouth.  
     “Your reputation precedes you.” Castiel informed him.  
He wasn’t lying, Dean’s reputation, while not all that good, was very well known amongst almost all of the students in their grade at school. Dean Winchester simply wasn’t known to be without a girlfriend. Then again, Cas had thought Lisa was his girlfriend, so how true the rumours would prove to be was up for debate.  
     “That’s never a good thing to hear.” Dean kept his gaze on the road, and Cas thought he might have sounded a little sad.  
     “Reputations are meaningless.”  
     “Not to my friends, Cas.” Dean shook his head slightly.  
     “Then are they really friends?”  
Dean assumed the question to be rhetorical. He didn’t answer it, either way.  
     “Are we almost home?” Dean asked instead.  
     “It’s the third house on the left.” Castiel breathed as Dean turned onto a long street of very large houses.  
     “Holy shit.”  
     “I know.”  
The houses weren’t only huge, they were like frigging mansions. They all had large front yards, protected by a border of metal fencing, and many had giant trees hanging over onto the street. Next to those were incredibly long driveways that led to oversized garages.  
Dean pulled into the driveway of the third house on the left and he just stared up at it for a while. It was at least four storeys tall, and the width of it was almost beyond comparison. The whitewashed walls reflected away all the winter sunlight that hit it, which made the house kind of like a bizarre angel or something.  
Just like the others, it had a neatly manicured garden, but unlike the others, there was an old, homemade wooden swing hanging from a thick branch of the tree. The seat was a little rotted away and it was covered in frost from being constantly in the shade.  
     “Holy shit.” Dean said again, but this time looking at the house rather than at Cas.  
     “I know.” Cas repeated, carefully watching Dean’s expression. Over the years, people had had different reactions to his house, some of which he didn’t care to remember.  
     “You live here?”  
     “As opposed to what? Squatting in the backyard?” Castiel bit his lip as the thought that he might be daunting Dean a little rushed through his head.  
     “I don’t know man, but this house is…not what I expected.”  
     “Would you like to come inside?” Cas decided not to bring up how Dean knew Valley Avenue, so he should have been expecting a house of that sort.  
     “Nah, I don’t wanna intrude.” Dean tore his eyes away from the house to look at Cas instead, a sight which he decided was better than the stacks of brick in front of him.  
     “You won’t be, trust me.”  
     “Are you sure?” Dean thought he was unworthy of setting foot inside such an amazing house.  
     “Why wouldn’t I be? Come on.” Castiel smiled at Dean’s uncertainty and reached for the door handle.  
He got out of the car in one smooth motion and shut the door quietly behind him. He stood with his back to the door for a second, waiting for Dean to join him, but when he didn’t hear the car’s other door open, he turned to see Dean who was totally not checking him out through the window. Definitely not. Castiel blushed a little, and Dean immediately averted his gaze, turning to fumble with the door handle instead.

Cas made the executive decision to sneak up to his room with Dean rather than explaining to Gabriel, or any other equally irritating sibling.  
Dean stepped into Cas’ room cautiously, and scanned across the room slowly. Before Dean could really take in much of what was in the room, a shrill sound pierced the air.  
Cas quickly whipped out his cell phone and accidentally put it on speaker as he answered.  
     _“What’s up, Clarence?”_ Meg’s voice rung clear throughout the room.  
     “Meg, you’re on speaker. What’s wrong?” Castiel decided to leave her on speaker, seen as he’d feel rude taking a call with Dean standing right there.  
     _“I just wanted to check how Santa’s elf was doing. Why am I on speaker? Who are you with?”_ Meg put on a very familiar tone of voice, the kind she used when she was suspicious but intrigued. On Meg, that could be fatal.  
     “I’m busy, can I call you back later?” Castiel swerved around the question expertly, glancing up to Dean in apology.  
     _“Be safe, Clarence!”_ Meg giggled and hung up.  
Castiel glared down at the dead line, half expecting Meg to call him straight back. She didn’t. He opened his mouth to apologize to Dean, but he was swiftly cut off.  
     "Why does she call you Clarence?" Dean tilted his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows slightly.  
Castiel perked up quite visibly, if he could put a name to the thing he loved the most, it’d be his namesake.  
     "Can I show you? It's from a movie, but it's a good one." Castiel rushed over his words, and butterflies began to flap around in his stomach, for whatever reason.  
     "Sure, why not?" Dean laughed, just enjoying how Castiel’s whole face lit up.  
Cas jumped on his bed and folded his legs, looking more like a third grader than anything else. Dean just stood still, glancing around Castiel's room.  
Castiel didn't notice though, he was too busy trying to balance himself so he could stand up and get to the shelf at the end of his bed.  
Dean followed his gaze and found a row of three shelves to be absolutely overflowing with DVDs.  
     "Gabriel and I are _slight_ movie geeks." Castiel explained upon noticing Dean's awestruck expression.  
Dean couldn't formulate a reply. Slight movie geeks apparently meant that they owned more DVDs than a movie rental store. What's worse, Dean thought, was that they were organized alphabetically.  
     "So what are we watching?" Dean asked, finally finding his voice.  
     "The most iconic Christmas movie of all time." Cas smiled and turned back to his DVDs, searching the shelf for the appropriate letter.  
Cas dragged his finger along the various cases until he stopped abruptly on one. The sleek plastic case was yanked off the shelf in one swift motion.  
     "Oh is it now?" Dean grinned from where he was standing.  
Castiel turned and waved the case in his face before leaping off the bed, making a loud bang as his feet hit the floor, and he yelped loudly as he landed.  
     "Remind me not to do that again." Castiel winced as a stab of pain shot through his ankles and up to his knees.  
His knees very nearly buckled, but he caught himself by clutching his closet instead of humiliating himself totally.  
     "Are you alright?"  
     "Yes, I'm fine." Castiel sucked air in through his teeth.  
The pain subsided and he stood up properly again. He was surprised to see he was still holding the DVD rather than have sent it flying across the room.  
     “Cas, is that you?” Gabriel hollered from the bottom of the stairs, evidently having heard the noises from above.  
     “Yes, Dean and I are going to watch a movie!” Cas yelled back, not bothering to open the door so he could just talk to his brother.  
Gabriel shouted back a muffled reply that sounded somewhat like ‘okay’, so Castiel just crossed the room to the giant TV that was hung up on the wall opposite the large bed.  
Dean took the opportunity to glance around the room. The walls were painted a colour that was somewhere between brown and cream, and was bordered by a white strip just above the ceiling. The floor was light wood, and it would have been cold and unwelcoming if it weren’t for the dark brown rug that was thrown roughly in the centre.  
The whole room gave an essence of Cas, somehow. Over in the corner, there was a desk that looked like it moulded to the two joining walls to create an L shape. There was a large bookcase resting against one of the walls that was just stocked full of books. Surprisingly, the walls were totally bare, but there were random sketchpads littered around the entire room.  
     “You can, um, sit down, if you want to.” Castiel shamelessly stared as Dean jerked his head up, looking guilty for prying.  
Cas looked down and smiled to himself, but gestured towards the bed when Dean looked around aimlessly.  
The movie started playing, and Cas was across the room and on the bed before Dean could sit down.  
     “You like this movie, huh?” Dean smirked, but not in the scornful way one would expect.  
     “A little.” Castiel returned the smirk as Dean sat down.  
The title credits began playing out and Cas shifted around awkwardly as his back began to ache from leaning forwards. He decided that Dean must be having the same problem, so he backed up and leaned against the wall, and Dean joined him, sitting much closer than strictly necessary.  
     “Wait, it’s black and white?” Dean spoke over the audio a few moments later.  
     “Yes, because it’s a classic. Shut up and watch the movie.” Castiel nudged Dean, and that’s when he actually realized how aware of Dean he was.  
Dean’s breathing, the scent of his cologne, the small movements he made, everything. Before Cas knew it, they were about a quarter of the way into the movie. He shook himself out mentally and just counted himself lucky that Dean was totally absorbed in the movie.  
So they sat, almost but not quite touching, watching a classic movie in the cosy little cocoon of Cas’ room.


	3. Lisa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to look at Lisa in some more detail, but ended up just going on a smear campaign against John Winchester. Whoops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well hell, two updates in one day? Make the most of it, because I've hurt my wrist so you probably won't be getting very much of anything for a while. Stay tuned, though, I'm not back in school yet! ;)

     “You’re late,” John Winchester snapped the moment Dean walked through the door.   
     “No, I’m not.” Dean argued, but continued taking off his jacket and heading for the stairs.   
     “I said: you’re late.” The unmistakable reek of alcohol clung to John, and Dean sighed under his breath. Of course, it wasn’t the first time he’d come home to find John angry and drunk, but it never got any easier.   
     “I said: I’m not.” Dean repeated, and he began to wonder if he could convince his father that the influence of alcohol had totally turned him into an idiot.  
     “I know what time you’re s’posed to be home.”   
     “Good for you. I’ve got homework, so drink a coffee or something, you smell like a bar.” Dean sure came across as confident, but inside, he was shaking. Drunk, pissed off John was not a thing to mess with, so he wasn’t sure why he aggravated him anyway.   
     “Where were you?”   
     “I was in work. Remember, at Ellen’s?” Dean began to walk upstairs seen as the conversation bored him. It could go one of two ways, so it might as well end with Dean walking away uninjured.   
     “Were you banging that little slut? What’s her name? Lisa?” John spat her name like it was poison and something snapped inside Dean.  
     “Don’t talk about her like that.”  
     “Stay away from that little whore, Dean.” John turned to walk away, as if that were the end of the conversation.   
     “Don’t fucking talk about her like that. She’s not a whore, or a slut. She’s my best friend, and not deserving of your pathetic insults.” Dean spoke in a low rumble, a dangerous tone that was usually reserved for threats.  
     “Watch your damn language. You heard what I said.”   
     “What you said was bullshit. Don’t you ever talk about her like that.” Dean snapped and then fled the area, sprinting up the stairs and into his room, into relative safety.

Sunday was slow. Dean slipped out of the front door at the break of dawn and didn’t return until sunset, when he silently sneaked up to his room, somehow remaining completely unnoticed. He’d spent the whole day with Lisa, and the conversation switched between Dean complaining about John and Lisa teasing him about Castiel.   
Cas, meanwhile, was standing in the mall, counting down the moments to his finishing time. More than once he found himself staring at Harvelle’s coffee store, but he didn’t see Dean. He still darted into the store as soon as he was finished.   
Jo remembered him from the previous day, so she just nodded before he could even open his mouth to ask about the bathroom. It was only when Cas was putting normal clothes on that he realized that he hadn’t actually paid for his cocoa the day before.  
He got a text from Gabriel as he was changing, telling him to hurry the hell up because they needed to be out of there. As he was rushing out, he skidded to a halt at the counter and handed Jo five dollars.   
     “I didn’t pay for my cocoa yesterday, I’m sorry, it just completely slipped my mind.” Castiel rushed over his words and bounced on his feet.  
     “Dean got it, it’s okay.” Jo smiled like she knew something he didn’t, and slid the note back over to him.   
     “Keep it. Give it to Dean.” Without waiting for a reply, Castiel sped out of the store, wanting to locate Gabriel before he left without him.

Despite what John Winchester thought, Lisa Braeden’s relationship with Dean was entirely platonic. At times, she’d wanted it to be more but she’d accepted that Dean wasn’t interested in her in that way. Anyway, it wasn’t like they didn’t constantly act like they were dating. There were at least twenty eight people they knew that were sure they were together.   
Lisa knew what John thought of her, and she shrugged it off because, to put it simply, she despised John. That excuse for a man who bullied her best friend and drank himself into oblivion every night. Lisa was almost certain that John hit Mary, but she knew better than to bring it up with Dean.  
The drinking got so heavy sometimes, Lisa was sure that one day, Dean would wake up to find his father dead in his chair, surrounded by empty bottles. Of course, she didn’t wish it on him, that would kill Dean, but she was just thinking realistically.   
She shook thoughts of a dying John Winchester from her head when Dean walked up to her, smiling. Lisa was leaning against the long row of monotone grey lockers, which she always lounged against when waiting for Dean. This particular morning, he took one look of her and shook his head.   
     “You’re gonna get dress coded today.” Dean picked at the loose shoulder of her mint green and white striped sweater.  
     “No I’m not.”   
     “Oh, you totally are. I mean, seriously Lis, a _loose sweater_? People can see your _shoulders._ ” Dean looked around at passing individuals as he gave the sarcastic response.   
Thinking about it, Dean was probably right. The school did have a pretty strict dress code, and petty teachers to enforce it.   
     “They send me home for wearing this, they can send Balthazar Novak home for having an obscenely exaggerated V-neck on.” Lisa argued, but she knew she wouldn’t be getting anywhere.   
She decided the school and their stupid dress code could go to Hell.  
     “That’s a fair point.”   
     “Speaking of the Novaks-” Lisa began, wearing a menacing smile as she did so.  
Luckily, the vice principle walked past at that moment.   
     “Braeden, my office now, please.” Zachariah almost snapped as he paused in his stride and turned to face her.   
     “Yes sir, of course sir, anything you say sir.” Lisa nodded and furrowed her eyebrows as she spoke, resembling a soldier who was defying her commanding officer.   
Zachariah huffed, making it quite obvious that he’d detected the sarcasm, but couldn’t make a solid case against her to argue it.   
Zachariah was a rounded middle-aged man, who liked nothing more than bringing a dark cloud of misery and forcing it on the students. He met Lisa’s defiant gaze and she relented. She rocked on her heels so she was stood up properly, gave Dean a parting glance and started to follow their vice principle down the hallway.   
She strolled casually down the hallway, but she couldn’t help feel a little sullen as she plodded along behind Zachariah. It wasn’t long before someone caught her eye though.   
     “Psst, Cas,” She whispered, and Cas spun around and immediately started walking at her side.  
     “What’s the matter?” He murmured, not wanted to catch Zachariah’s attention, which he undoubtedly would.  
     “I’ve been dress coded. I’m probably going to see the principle which-” Lisa was abruptly cut off by Zachariah turning around sharply to send an accusing glare towards Castiel.  
     “Can I help you, Novak?” He asked, almost being sickeningly sweet.   
     “Actually, I was just going to see Raphael.” Castiel met his stare, though he felt like he was drowning in his own rushed heartbeat.   
Raphael was their principle, who happened to have a rather large soft spot for Castiel.  
     “Oh, were you now?”   
     “Yes, sir.” Castiel immediately felt like a child under Zachariah’s intimidating stare.   
     “Why, may I ask?” Zachariah raised his eyebrows in a very familiar way. The look he was giving Castiel was the look he gave to students when he didn’t believe a word that was coming out of their mouths.  
     “No sir, you may not,” Castiel’s voice came out a hell of a lot more confident than he felt, and Lisa looked over to him with widened eyes and her head tilted slightly to the side. “It’s a personal matter.” Castiel added hurriedly as his confident façade began wavering.   
     “Very well, then you’d better come along.” Zachariah narrowed his eyes, but turned and resumed walking.   
     “What’re you gonna do now?” Lisa hissed after a moment.  
     “I’ll think of something,” Castiel whispered back, desperately sorting through every possible excuse he had.

     “Ah, Castiel! Thank you, Zachariah, I can take care of these two.” Raphael gave Zachariah his dismissal the second he caught sight of the two.   
     “But sir, don’t you want me to explain-” Zachariah looked like a smug little bastard who had just ratted out his arch enemies.  
     “I think I can handle it.” Raphael’s stern words wiped that look off Zach’s face.   
Raphael stepped into his office and gestured for Lisa and Cas to do the same, as Zachariah just stood still, openly gawping.   
     “See ya’ later, Zach.” Lisa winked as she disappeared into the safety of the office.   
     “Take a seat, please.” Raphael instructed them as he made his way around to sit behind the large desk. They did as they were told and fumbled with the hard chairs until they were both somewhat comfortable.   
     “How is my favourite nephew?” Raphael smiled, and Lisa thought there was a strange hardness underneath the friendly act.   
     “I still remain to be one of many nephews, and I don’t think my brothers would take kindly to you picking favourites.” Castiel looked genuinely offended for his siblings, and Lisa almost giggled before a thought struck her.  
 _Wait, nephew?_   
She cast a glance to Cas that said exactly what she’d just grasped internally.   
     “It’s a figure of speech, Castiel.” Raphael sighed. “What can I do for you two?” Raphael leaned back in the large office chair, looking like some evil mastermind as the assorted paintings in the background framed his outline.   
     “I got dress coded.” Lisa replied honestly, and she turned her gaze down to hide the blush that spread across her tan skin. She cursed herself for it, but ever since she was a kid, she’d blushed when she was in trouble.   
     “By whom?” Raphael questioned as he his eyebrows and leaned forwards.  
     “Zachariah,” Lisa blurted, and then bit her lip hard. They weren’t supposed to address staff by their first names, but Zachariah was such a dick, nobody paid him the respect of calling him by his surname.   
     “There’s no need to worry about it. You’re dressed fine.” Raphael smiled again, and Lisa couldn’t help but see that undertone of menacing hardness. “You may go, Lisa. Castiel, please stay behind for a moment.”   
Lisa nibbled the inside of her lip, but the one comforting glance from Castiel meant she was speeding out of the room faster than she would have expected possible.


End file.
